title: Donor age and cell passage affects differentiation potential of murine bone marrow-derived stem cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are a widely researched adult stem cell population capable of differentiation into various lineages. Because many promising applications of tissue engineering require cell expansion following harvest and involve the treatment of diseases and conditions found in an aging population, the effect of donor age and ex vivo handling must be understood in order to develop clinical techniques and therapeutics based on these cells. Furthermore, there currently exists little understanding as to how these two factors may be influenced by one another.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Differences in the adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic differentiation capacity of murine MSCs harvested from donor animals of different age and number of passages of these cells were observed. Cells from younger donors adhered to tissue culture polystyrene better and proliferated in greater number than those from older animals. Chondrogenic and osteogenic potential decreased with age for each group, and adipogenic differentiation decreased only in cells from the oldest donors. Significant decreases in differentiation potentials due to passage were observed as well for osteogenesis of BMSCs from the youngest donors and chondrogenesis of the cells from the oldest donors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both increasing age and the number of passages have lineage dependent effects on BMSC differentiation potential. Furthermore, there is an obvious interplay between donor age and cell passage that in the future must be accounted for when developing cell-based therapies for clinical use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, PO Box 1892, MS-142, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. jdkret@rice.edu
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kretlow
authors.forename: Yu-Qing
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wen Jie
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tan-Hui
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Guangdong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: L Scott
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Baggett
authors.forename: Antonios G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Mikos
authors.forename: Yilin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D050156:Adipogenesis; D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D020219:Chondrogenesis; D008297:Male; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D010012:Osteogenesis